After a furious comeback against the defending national champs came up one point short Friday, Allen Community College’s men weren’t much interested in seeing any kind of drama develop a day later.
The Red Devils shot a blistering 11 of 14 from 3-point range Saturday evening to cruise past Metropolitan College, 92-75.
That came after Allen sliced a 13-point deficit to one on Friday evening against National Park in a 77-76 setback.
The games, constituting the Red Devil Classic, were another segment of Allen’s brutal early schedule, which includes multiple NJCAA-Division I schools, the defending NJCAA-II titlists in National Park, and other powerhouses, like Connors State College, which comes to town Tuesday evening.
The tough early stretch is part of head coach Patrick Nee’s strategy to have the Red Devils battle-tested by the time Jayhawk Conference play starts in January.
“We’re getting better,” Nee said, noting Allen remains without one of its primary weapons, sophomore guard Tyler Pinder due to injury. Pinder is due back around Thanksgiving.
“When Tyler gets back, we’ll be ready to roll,” he said.
And after a pair of tough losses to start the season, Allen’s marked improvement has borne out on the hardwood, even without Pinder.
The Red Devils gave Division I power Butler County all it wanted last weekend before nearly storming back to take down National Park’s Nighthawks Friday.
National Park had led from the outset, pushing open a 13-point margin early in the second half, before Allen’s Jevontae Costner and Henri Ray-Young both hit 3-pointers as part of a run to slice Allen’s deficit to 67-61.
The margin yo-yoed between six and eight points over the next few minutes before Ray-Young nailed a long jumper before Schilreff drove in for a layup to pull to within 75-71 with 1:12 left.
But National Park milked the next 30 seconds off the clock before Addison Shelton scored on a putback with 44 seconds left to extend the margin back to 77-71.
Schilreff got two more points back on another driving layup with 29 seconds left. The Red Devils forced a turnover from there, with Schilreff’s 3-pointer in the waning seconds making it a one-point game when the final buzzer sounded.
Schilreff scored 19 points to go with four assists and four steals, Costner had 14 points and Ray-Young scored 11. Tynell Stevenson came off the bench to score 16 and pull down a team-high seven rebounds. Costner added six assists.
SATURDAY had no such late drama.
